Mr Smoozles goes Nutso: A Review (19Mb)
The Goragons have invaded the Earth and zapped Mr. Smoozles with their mind ray, turning him into a crazy, gun-toting cat! Help Ed as he tries to avoid the attacking Mr. Smoozles and many other dangers, solves numerous puzzles and interacts with a host of enchanting characters! He must stop the Goragons from distorting the whole fabric of reality! With an addictive mix of game play and humor, Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso is a delight for gamers of all ages and tastes!
Reference: http://www.reflexive.com/Mr.SmoozlesGoesNutso.html accessed 29th Jan 09
This is an arcade action/adventure puzzle game based on Steve Ince’s popular Mr. Smoozles webcomic, which you can check out in it’s entirety via the following link:
http://www.steve-ince.co.uk/smoozles/smoozles_archive/MrS0001.htm
These comics feature a collection of around fifty bickering, anthropomorphic (human like) kittens and aliens who are mildly obsessed with video games, and some aspects of these comics such as the humor and the characters are reflected in the game as well.
The game is an inventory driven game, so most of the main characters (called Ed) missions require him to find items and use them in some way. In addition, there are a few inventory and logic type puzzles that you’ll come across such as color coded doors that require matching keys, which may also pose a problem for those who are color blind.
On starting the game you get a windowed intro screen. To continue to the next screen click on enter. You will then be given the choice of staying in windowed mode or living dangerously (if you’re at work) and going full screen. :lol: From here you can choose three levels of difficulty, not surprisingly called easy, medium and hard, and then there’s also the ability to turn on or off the in game hints, so the game should appeal to a wide cross section of the community, from rank beginners to hardened gamers. At it’s easiest you get clues to everything, so there’s little to figure out; just follow the basic rules of talking to every character, picking up all the reality shards, which can be used to unlock specific items such as control panels, and search every locker and cupboard you find for items. As you find these they will be stored in your inventory list which can be found underneath the main playing area. Oh yeah, you need to find an enabler before you can pick up any of your shards. The images I took of the first three levels will give you some pointers if you feel you need some help. I was going to add more from level 4 a purple room and level 5 the pit room, but then I’d be giving too many clues away so deleted those screen images. Personally I didn’t find much difference in playing it on easy with the hints activated and on hard with the hints off (normal) , though Mr Smoozles gun seems more powerful, so you can get killed much easier and there were less bonus lives on the hard level. (Can’t remember seeing any actually)
You can also save your progress at any time by using the F5 key. Once you’ve selected your level of difficulty, if this is the first time you are playing the game you’ll be introduced to the games story line via a four page cartoon strip, then a general written explanation of the games basics. If you are red/green colour blind, you may have great difficulty reading it though because the text is lime green on a green background. So here are the basics copied from that information:
Quote
- "You control Ed as he tries to stay alive by avoiding Mr. Snoozles, who has gone berserk.
The Goragons have invaded Earth and are using Mr Smoozles’ house for their base. Not only have they affected his mind, they have warped reality and Ed must free his friends, restore normality – and Mr. Smoozles mind – and defeat the Goragons’ plans."
Controls
Cursor Keys…………..Movement
Walkover item……..Picks up item
Enter…………………….Interact with item such as doors and characters
Ctrl………………………Examine objects and read notices
Any key……………….Clears dialogue boxes
F5………………………..Open Save Game Window
F6………………………..Open Load Game Window
F1………………………..Open Game Information Window
Esc………….…….……Close Game Information Window
ESC………….……..….Go to Main Menu
Q……………………...….Quit Game
There are other keybindings used when required during the game (for example at the beginning of the game you will be told by the frog that D = Teleport after he's given you the displacer, which is a teleporting tool).
You start the game with three lives and initially have to figure out how to get into the house before the Goragons change reality and kill you. (You have about 30 seconds before this happens, so if you’re stuck from the outset I’ve provided you with a link to a walkthrough, which tells you what you need to know. Remember this is inventory lead, so you need to find and pick up items that you can find on the levels that you find and use them in some way. Sometimes you will also need to get information from other characters before you can proceed further and are likely to find yourself moving backwards and forwards between environments to pick up items you may have missed, or to activate items once you’ve found the necessary items to activate it with; so search every room thoroughly and interact with everything. Interact with other characters, except of course for Mr Smoozles, who will try to kill you if he catches you. There are bonus lives to be gained throughout the 60 levels that this game boasts though as mentioned above, these vary depending upon which level of difficulty you’ve chosen. If you lose all three lives, which is highly likely when you first start playing this game, clicking on the continue button will resupply you with three more lives and you can start from where you were killed, (or using the games dialogue lost your reality).
For more information on this game I recommend you read the reviews I’ve linked to below. The Reflexive reviews are from users and are short and to the point. The other two are full blown reviews, but both are written in different styles and both give extra information that you may find (or not) useful in playing this game.
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PC Specifications:
O.S…………………………..Windows 2000/ME/XP/Vista
C.P.U………………………..1.8 GHz processor
System RAM………………..256MB
Graphics RAM………………32 MB graphics
Hard Drive space……………40MB hard drive space (for game and saves)
3D Graphics…………………DirectX version 8 or above
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Useful Information
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Hints/Spoilers:
Unless you’re really stuck I’d leave these spoilers otherwise you’ll finish the game very quickly and also take away any challenge the game poses.
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Walkthrough:
http://www.gameboomers.com/wtcheats/pcSs/MrSmoozlesgoesNutso.htm
Juniper Games Hints Page:
http://www.juniper-games.com/smoozles/Hints.htm
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reviews worth reading:
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http://www.qj.net/QJ-NET-Reviews-Mr-Smoozles-Goes-Nutso/pg/49/aid/111690
http://www.reflexive.com/Mr.SmoozlesGoesNutso.html
http://www.gamezebo.com/games/mr-smoozles-goes-nutso/review
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Images:
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All on one page:
As a slideshow:
Googled:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Mr+Smoozles+goes+nutso&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
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Conclusion:
This is a definite keeper for me. It’s an interesting and reasonably challenging game just so long as you’re not tempted to use the spoilers that I’ve linked to above. It’s one of the first games I’ve given more than 7 out of 10 for ages. It’s worth a good 8 out of 10 for family playability, a reasonably challenging game and great cartoon graphics. If you want to get more of the humour (It’s supposed to be British humour) that’s contained within the game it would be a good idea to check out the online comic (that I’ve also linked to above. It starts from the very first page, so you can work through the whole series if you wish. I would recommend this game to any arcade games lover. :lol:
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Suggestions to the author of the game:
• Add an options menu where you can deselect the music as well as a toggle for full screen.
• Create a profile selector so that games can be saved with the player’s name. This will enable multiple profiles to be saved. As it stands, if you have more than a few people playing the game, it's going to get rather confusing as to whose game is whose.
• Speed up the loading process if possible. (I have games with next generation graphics yet they don’t take as long as this game to load)
• I only came across extra lives in this game as far as I’ve played it and saw no signs of other power ups. It may be a good idea if you added some power ups such as a freeze gun that enables Ed to freeze Mr Smoozle for several seconds that can only be used every so many minutes. You could add a charge bar to the other information stored below the main playing area; or another power up that slows him down. What about one that grants you access to one item that usually requires you to collect lots of reality shards.
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